Warning – Are You Tactically Squared Away

This is a guest post by Scott Sylvester

Tactically Squared Awaytactically squared away

Squared away: Everything is set and proper, clean and tidy and ready to go

Are you tactically squared away? Well… are you? Think about it for a minute and contemplate what I am asking, and then formulate your answer to the question. Go ahead…I’ll wait.

When I ask this question to my students I get a lot of blank stares initially. What I am asking you, is, if right now something happened that was an imminent threat to your life, or a threat to the life of one you loved, are your tools readily accessible, ready for immediate deployment and ready for a sustained confrontation?

If I say, “GO!” right now, how long would it take you to get to where your firearm is stored, open the drawer, or safe it is stored in, load it if necessary, and be prepared to fight? If you haven’t timed yourself, then you are kidding yourself about the realistic time frame, and your ability to complete these actions under stress. As always, I will provide an example based on my own experience.

I obtained a small locking safe where my wife keeps her Glock. It is loaded, chambered and secured under the bed with the key stored in a discreet yet accessible location within our house. As a drill I told my wife that someone just kicked in the door and she needed her gun yesterday… “Go!” Running upstairs she was able to get the key from its location, drag the safe out from under the bed, unlock the metal box and get her pistol out in about 30 seconds. If a bad guy was chasing her, she never would have made it in time. As a result, we learned a few things and reformatted our response plan.

They key now has an attached lanyard which makes it easier to grab under stress. We attached a flashlight with a simple push button to the lanyard so she can see in the dark to unlock the safe. We moved the safe to the head of the bed instead of the foot to get it closer to where she would have to reach. The gun in the safe is no longer in a holster she would have to draw from… now it is a grab, point and shoot and the holster lies behind the safe. If we have time to get the holster, it’s not an imminent threat.

After rerunning the drill, we shaved several seconds off the response time, and now in less than 20 seconds my wife and I can get upstairs and get the gun into the fight. While that sounds fast, 2o seconds is an eternity! Especially when the excrement is about to strike the oscillating device. However, it does illustrate my point about being tactically squared away.

  • Where is your firearm?
  • Where is the ammo for your firearm?
  • Is it safe from children and other unauthorized persons who should not have access to a firearm?
  • Can you get to it…when you really need it?
  • How long does it take you to bring it into the fight?

If you cannot answer these questions, stop reading and run this drill right… “NOW!”

Now that you’ve run the drill, how’d you do? Self-assess your performance and be very critical. Think how you could have done better, and how you could have done it faster. Make the changes and run it again. Re-assess and wash, rinse, repeat until you are Tactically Squared Away!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s drill. Remember, the better you can perform, the longer you will live. How long that is depends on how much you train and how prepared you are. Train like your life depends on it… ‘cause it does.

Until next time, be safe, never give up and remember, YOU are the weapon, everything else is just a tool!

Scott Sylvester is a firearms instructor and peace officer in California. They still have openings for February 22nd Defensive Handgun. Register today by phone (408) 482-8772 or email: oneweaponanytool@gmail.com Course will be held in Valley Springs.

Find them on Facebook and on Twitter: @1weaponanytool

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